Exemption-control triage (GHI #797 drain, 2026-08-14)

Companion to data/exemption_control_grandfather.json. That file counts the disclosed absence of an exempts declaration; this file records what was found when the gates behind those absences were actually read, so the next drain pass starts from a reading rather than from a scan.

Authored under the operator ruling of 2026-08-14: triage all 71, declare only the honest 'none's. Writing exemption controls was explicitly not in scope — that remains the enrollment the 2026-08-12 inventory-not-enrollment ruling declined, and the advisory-rules-audit.md § Recommended promotion order freeze still governs ("a new mechanical check is added only when a specific, observed drift instance justifies it").

Result

	seed	pass 1	pass 2
Claims declaring exempts	5	13	21
Disclosed undeclared	71	63	55
baseline_count (shrink-ratchet)	71	63	55

Sixteen claims have now been read end-to-end, found to carry no exemption surface, declared exempts='none', surrendered from the accepted list, and the ratchet baseline decremented in the same commit as each pass.

Pass 2 (2026-08-14) cleared the Tier-B backlog: every claim in this inventory has now been read. The 17 unreached claims resolved 8 declarable and 9 with a located admit path. Nothing is left in the "absence of a located surface, but not a reading" state — the remaining 55 are all enrollment debt (each owes a differential control), never reading debt. That distinction is the point of this file: the next pass cannot find cheap declarations here, and should not go looking.

Three of pass 2's eight declarations register outside _qc_negative_controls — gate5-ledger and gate5-attestation-absence in gzkit.mx.invariants, grader-gaming in gzkit.mx.proxy_reality. Declaring them in _QC_CLAIM_EXEMPTS alone left --exemption-controls failing on all three, because that map only feeds register_qc_negative_controls. They carry exempts=EXEMPTS_NONE at their own enforces(...) call sites instead. A future declaration must check where its claim actually registers; the map is not the only inlet.

The bar applied

A claim was declared 'none' only when no input makes the gate admit an item it has judged in violation. Qualifying admit paths — any one of these means the gate has an exemption and stays disclosed:

• a waiver / grandfather table (data/*_waivers.json, data/*_grandfather*.json)
• an excluded / allowlist entry
• an escape marker or skip token in the scanned content
• an opt-in arm that is off by default, or an opt-out config that disables the check
• an authorization booking (the resume-gate shape)

Not exemption surfaces, and deliberately so: scope predicates (which artifacts the gate examines), threshold parameters (a budget defines what a violation is), artifact-absent returns (nothing to compare), and error-path returns.

The severity line (added by pass 2)

Eight of the seventeen Tier-B gates turned on a case the five bullets do not settle: a gate that finds something and does not exit non-zero on it. The separator is who controls the admission.

• A finding the gate classifies advisory/non-blocking by a fixed code property — a separate finding type, a required: False in an in-code check table, a question declaring no validator — is OUTSIDE the judged set. The gate never claimed to enforce it, so there is nothing to admit.
• A finding the gate WOULD fail on, admitted by a project-controllable input — an off-by-default flag, a manifest entry, a config value, a data file, a marker, a ledger booking — is an exemption, however well justified.

That line is what separates readiness-audit (in-code required bits plus a score threshold — declared 'none') from skill-audit (an identical blocking/non-blocking split, but gated on --strict, which is off by default — disclosed). Justification is irrelevant to membership: enforcement-floor's exclusion is deliberate and ADR-backed and is still an exemption, because this list is an inventory, not an accusation.

This bar is calibrated against the two pre-existing declared exemplars, which are the only place the line had been drawn before this pass: handoff-resume-unauthorized-{write,bash} name the booking claim as their exemption, and verifier-pipe-gate names the pipefail/PIPESTATUS escape. Both controls assert the differential — refuse-without and permit-with, in one function — which is the shape any control written from this triage owes.

Declared 'none' (16 — surrendered)

Pass 1 (2026-08-14, first eight):

Claim	Why nothing is owed
adr-status-freshness	Diffs on-disk ADR canon against the derived index; every drift entry is a finding and nothing suppresses one.
instructions-files-budget	Per-file char budget. Project-overridable, but a threshold defines the violation rather than admitting one.
invariant-coherence	Byte-compares rendition playback against committed AGENTS.md. Only non-finding return is "no committed rendition exists".
kind-invariance	Requires a substantive ## Why foundation tier? on every foundation ADR. The sidecar filter selects which files are ADRs; it admits no failing ADR.
line-endings	Two fail-closed arms (.gitattributes LF directive; no tracked text surface committed CRLF). No per-file waiver.
orientation-freshness	Asserts the SessionStart hook stays wired in both harnesses. Every arm yields a finding; a missing script is an error, not a pass.
waiver-ratchet-closed-set-lock	Per-surface mechanism check. The registry's excluded list is consulted only by the unregistered-file scan, never here.
waiver-ratchet-dated-cutover	Same.

Pass 2 (2026-08-14, the Tier-B eight):

Claim	Why nothing is owed
agents-md-map-conformance	Criteria (a)–(d) over the AGENTS.md template and rendered file. Table rows and fenced blocks are excluded from paragraph counting because neither is a paragraph; the budget overlay is a threshold; the prohibited-title match is case-insensitive deliberately, so authoring case is not an escape. The _advisory finding type is a separate heuristic ADR-0.0.54 reserves from hard rejection, not a downgrade of a/b/c/d.
gate5-ledger	Schema/shape conformance over ledger lines. Unreadable line, non-object entry, unknown event type, missing ledger, and missing schema are each findings — every shape that would otherwise be the skip. Gate 5 is never demoted by the MX marker.
gate5-attestation-absence	_requires_human_obpi_attestation returns True unconditionally (ADR-0.0.36 collapsed the branching, so there is no arm to take); the field validator fails closed on placeholder attestor, non-true human_attestation, empty text, and malformed date.
grader-gaming	A detector, not a judge-then-admit gate: reports every obpi_completion_repudiated whose cause is model-induced fabrication. The cause filter selects which events are the signal.
dispatch-absorption-marker	One frontmatter marker on one pool ADR. Both arms exit 3 — a missing pool ADR is a finding, so even the artifact-absent path fails closed.
preflight	Stale markers, orphan receipts, expired locks. An unreadable receipt is reported as an orphan and an unreadable lock as expired: the error paths accuse rather than excuse. --apply cleans up, never suppresses.
readiness-audit	Exits non-zero on any required failure or a sub-2.0 score. The required bit is fixed per check in an in-code table and the floor is a threshold — neither is project-settable, and every failure is reported in issues regardless. See § The severity line.
pool-interview-schema	Grammar + completeness over committed pool records. A record the audit cannot read is a finding by explicit design (the GHI #736 correction). question.required and the validator set are fixed in ADR_QUESTIONS, the same authority the CLI loader reads.

Exemption surface located — control owed (Tier A)

Each of these was read or its admit path located and named. None can honestly declare 'none'; each owes a control asserting the refuse/permit differential across the named surface.

Claim	Admit path
waiver-ratchet, waiver-ratchet-silent-bypass	registry excluded list
handoff-documents, handoff-documents-populated-sections	data/handoff_section_grandfather.json + pre-cutover legacy tolerance
authorship-policy	opt-in authorship.required_email_suffix; unset ⇒ whole audit is a no-op
insights-shape	_INSIGHTS_SHAPE_WAIVERS, keyed by content hash
fidelity-presence	data/fidelity_presence_grandfather.json
persona-witness	data/persona_grandfather.json
rendition-floor-coherence, rendition-freshness	MX hangar checkpoint downgrades the gate to advisory when the marker is present
brief-structure	is_terminal_brief_status carve-out — an authored status: flips a brief from judged to admitted
module-size	grandfathered roster (the control's own expect_output is "not grandfathered")
adr-taxonomy	data/foundation_grandfather.json
adversarial-validation	data/adversarial_validation_grandfather.json
advisory-scorecard-coverage, -summary-drift, -ruff-reachability	advisory_scorecard_grandfather.json, mechanical_witness_grandfather.json
closeout-proof	data/behave_coverage_waivers.json
complexity-doctrine-links	<!-- gz-validate-skip: complexity-doctrine-links --> marker
complexity-thresholds	a declared "Bootstrap absolutes" section skips portability checks
gate-callers	data/uncalled_gate_grandfather.json
status-writer-coverage	_DATACLASS_WAIVERS
qc-binding, theater-signature-scan	_SELF_EXCLUSION set
receipt-shape	data/historical_self_close_waivers.json
red-parity	dated CUTOVER — pre-cutover completions skipped
lock-exchange-coupling	dated enforcement cutover grandfathering the warning-only transition
unscoped-rules	manifest rules.unscoped_allowlist
session-green-gate	check_delivery arm is opt-in and off by default
smoke-tier	empty tier passes unless the project declares smoke.required
transcribed-adr-counts	opt-in surface registry + <!-- historical-count --> opt-out marker
req-kind-discipline	all-untagged brief ⇒ legacy/grandfathered pass
interview-transcripts	data/interview_transcript_waivers.json
tautological-test-audit	waivers + self-exclusion + baseline
validate-default-scopes	is_adr_shape_grandfathered + waiver counting
surface-fidelity-surface-weight, surface-fidelity	data/surface_weight_waivers.json (the composite inherits it)
exemption-controls	its own accepted_claims list — this inventory is exempted by the surface it inventories
lint, format, typecheck, test, behave	the external tool's escape: # noqa/per-file-ignores, # fmt: skip, # ty: ignore[...], @unittest.skip, skip tags
task-envelope-coherence, -layer-drift, -obpi-divergence, -subdivision	_OBPI_ID_CANONICAL_CUTOVER + per-signature grandfather sets + req_atomic exemption

Added by pass 2, from the former Tier B. None of these carries a waiver/grandfather/excluded token anywhere in its module — a token scan clears all nine, which is exactly why the predecessor's grep located nothing and left them unread. Each admit path below was found by reading the gate.

Claim	Admit path
surface-fidelity-bullet-retention	CorpusEntry.tier == "compressible" + a rendition_advisor_verdict booking. A bullet absent from the surface, which the invariant arm fails, is admitted on the receipt. The error message concedes it: "not an unconditional escape from retention."
surface-fidelity (composite)	Inherits the above and data/surface_weight_waivers.json (already recorded). Both arms, not one.
airlock-in-unaccounted-seam	A live (non-revoked) CaptainOverride in _decide. The docstring states it: "the only way past a NO-GO." The authorization-booking shape, same family as handoff-resume-*.
enforcement-floor	_GATE5_NAMED_NOT_ENFORCED — unenrolled_gate5_members iterates GATE5_INVARIANTS - _GATE5_NAMED_NOT_ENFORCED, so secrets and operator-pii are subtracted from the floor's own declared population. The code's own word is "exempt by design." Deliberate and ADR-backed, and still an exemption.
docs-build	mkdocs.yml validation: downgrades. This repo sets links.not_found: ignore, so a dead link raises no warning for --strict to promote — filed as GHI #803; see § Observations 5. Closed for not_found 2026-09-29 (GHI #803): links.not_found is warn again and run_mkdocs refuses a config below gzkit.quality.MKDOCS_VALIDATION_FLOOR (control docs-build-validation-floor). Still undeclared: anchors, absolute_links, unrecognized_links and nav.omitted_files remain project-set and unfloored.
skill-audit	_skill_audit_success passes non-blocking warnings unless --strict, which is off by default and off in the control's own invocation.
cli-audit	Manifest surfaces.manpage: false — the per-command loop continues past the manpage, heading, and index checks for any command carrying it.
parity-check	enforced = template_path.exists() or bool(report_paths); when both are absent the gate returns valid: True and exits 0. The discriminator is itself a member of required_files, so removing the surfaces both disables the check and hides the removal.
obpi-lifecycle-coherence	The disposition set excluded from the orphan census (terminal / completed / parked) is reachable by writing a ledger event. Only the parked arm has a truthfulness re-check (park_coherence_violations, GHI #774); terminal and completed do not.

Tier B — cleared

Empty as of pass 2. All 17 were read: 8 declared 'none' above, 9 moved into Tier A with their admit path named. No claim in this inventory is now in the "absence of a located surface, but not a reading" state.

Observations (none of these is a defect)

Recorded because they shape what a future drain costs — not as tracked defects. Read them as pricing, not as a backlog.

1. The control-writing side is where the cost is. All 71 claims have now been read: 16 were declarable and 55 carry a real admit path. The drain is not gated on judgment — the judgment is done and recorded — it is gated on writing 55 differential controls. That is the enrollment the 2026-08-12 ruling declined, and this triage does not reverse it; it prices it. The price is now exact rather than approximate, which is the one thing pass 2 bought that pass 1 could not.

2. Five claims inherit their exemption from an external tool. lint, format, typecheck, test, and behave gate on ruff / ty / unittest / behave, whose escapes (# noqa, # fmt: skip, # ty: ignore, @skip) are not gzkit surfaces. A control for these asserts that gzkit's invocation still refuses without the escape and admits with it — worth deciding once as a family rather than five times.

3. gz validate --type-ignores is the one Tier-A row whose control already exists in substance — it polices the typecheck gate's # ty: ignore[...] escape (.claude/rules/pythonic.md § Type-check suppression syntax), which is the refuse/permit differential an exemption control owes. It carries no enforcement claim, so typecheck cannot name it.

Do not read that as a singular hole. Measured 2026-08-14: the QC registry holds 56 steps (55 bound, 1 advisory) and type-ignores is not in it at all, but neither are class-size, cli-alignment, commit-trailers, distribution, sensitivity, skill-alignment, or utf8-prefix — dozens of explicit-only gz validate scopes carry no claim, and type-ignores is not in the validate-default-scopes blanket either (the default tier is 13 scopes). --qc-binding passes green over all of it because it audits only enrolled steps. That is the single-membership blindness exemption_controls.py already names one level up — a known posture, not a discovery, and enrolling one scope does not change it.

4. _ep_fidelity_presence deliberately zeroes its own exemption, and this is correct. The control calls audit_fidelity_presence(root, grandfather=frozenset()) so the refuse arm genuinely fires against an unwaived corpus — a stronger control than most in the table. It is recorded here only as a worked illustration of the disclosed GHI #797 class (the admit half of a two-claim gate goes unexercised), never as a criticism of the control.

5. docs-build's admit path is live in this repo — filed as GHI #803. run_mkdocs's own docstring (src/gzkit/quality.py:612) states the gate exists so that "broken nav and dead links fail closed." This repository's mkdocs.yml:218-225 sets links.not_found: ignore, which suppresses the diagnostic entirely, and pins nav.omitted_files, absolute_links, unrecognized_links, and anchors at info. --strict promotes warnings; nothing in that block ever reaches warning level.

Observed 2026-08-14 (receipt arb-step-mkdocs-19b4d350af194ae98883e2ae9301a5c0): mkdocs build --strict exits 0 while reporting ~280 pages omitted from nav at INFO, including all of docs/user/manpages/, docs/user/skills/, and docs/governance/.

Precision, so the row is not overclaimed: the docstring's stated origin incident — a nav entry pointing at a renamed manpage — is validation.nav.not_found, which that block does not set, so it keeps its default and is still caught. What the config withdraws is the other half of the same sentence.

Recorded here rather than repaired: changing those settings is a behavior change to a live gate, outside this pass's ruled scope (read the 17, declare the honest 'none's), and the backlog it would surface is unmeasured. It is a coupled-surface incoherence — a docstring asserting enforcement the config withdraws — not merely an exemption, which is why it earned a GHI rather than a table cell. Disposition is open on #803.

Verification

Bash

uv run gz validate --exemption-controls   # 76 inventoried, 21 declared, 55 disclosed
uv run gz validate --waiver-ratchet       # baseline_count 55 matches the live list
jq '.accepted_claims | length' data/exemption_control_grandfather.json   # 55